Deck the Halls

With the first of the winter's flurries drifting down around us and the ground finally frozen enough to hold the snow for a while, it feels like it is time to make a wreath and a garland to decorate the cabin for the Christmas season.

The fir and pine boughs had been cut on a previous Sunday, to avoid being in the woods on a hunting day. In Nova Scotia it is illegal to hunt on Sunday, so for us it is a good day for a walk in the woods, but in other areas it is probably a good idea to wear orange clothing if venturing into the woods.

Wreath ring

  

To make a wreath you will need to find a ring and some wire. Wreath rings come in many sizes and shapes and you are limited only by your imagination of what you would like to see on your house. Rings can be purchased at many craft supply stores as well as farm supply stores. This was a surprise for us, but it makes sense, since many tree farmers make wreaths to sell from trees that didn't make the grade.

The first step is to cut your greenery into pieces of 20-25cm(8-10") in length. You want to keep them as uniform as possible. 

Gather together 2 or 3 of the cut pieces and bunch them together facing the same direction with the greener side facing the same way. 

Place the bunch on the ring with the greenest side facing out and wrap the wire around the bottom of the clump with a couple of turns of wire. Place another bunch on the other side of the wreath about 5cm(2") further down the ring from the cut end of the first bunch wrapping the wire around the cut end. Repeat this process, alternating sides, working your way around the ring. The last couple of bunches will need to be tucked under the first bunches to get the boughs to lay flat and look like a continuous circle.  The last bunches you place on the wreath will not be quite as neat as the first, this is OK as it is the perfect place to add a bow or some decorations. Despite all your best efforts, your wreath will in all reality not be symmetrical.  Take your shears and trim the wayward sprigs of greenery and shape the wreath into its final shape. Now it is ready to hang on your wall or door.

Remember to cut the greenery off the wreath and save the ring for next years wreath, it saves money and room in the landfill.

To made a swag or garland, I use a piece of rope to hold the greenery. It is flexible and strong enough to handle the weight. I use a braided rope, as nylon or poly is too slippery and the boughs can shift.  

I start the swag by tying a knot at each end of the rope at the length that is desired for the door or window. Then I mark the rope in the center. Starting at one end I attach bunches of cut boughs the same as on the wreath, but only placing them on one side, you could do both side to make a bushier garland but the weight is increased quite a bit and can be problematic in fastening it. I screwed eye bolts above the door and use zip ties to hang the swag. This saves from adding new holes in the woodwork from nails or staples.

Content in Retirement

The Fall of 2011 brought to our family a dilemma that we turned into an opportunity. I was at the age where we were starting to prepare for an early retirement, working in an industry that was in a severe decline. As with most waning industries, there were periods of intense upheaval, the dying gasps and the fight to survive a few more years. The Fall of 2011 was just one such period in the newsprint industry. Our industry was dying and in an effort to prolong it's survival, major changes were needed and a large downsizing of the workforce was one of the first steps. Not much time was given to make a decision of this magnitude, less than 72 hours. 

My wife and I sat down and crunched the numbers, we weighed the pros and cons and gazed into our crystal ball to try and predict what our future would look like under each scenario. In the end we decided to take a buyout package and made the leap into retirement from the company that had employed me for 30 years. At the ripe old age of 48, I became a retiree. This stage in life had come to us 7 years earlier than we had planned and accelerated many of our plans.

Many of our friends and family had shared the opinion that we would soon become bored with the retired life and either go stir crazy or run back into the fold of the gainfully employed. We did flirt with running our own business for a brief time, a notable failure which made us realize that we were actually glad not to have succeeded. 

We have now been retired for 2 years and have so far had no problems with boredom.  We decided to write a blog to share how we stay occupied and some of the lessons we have learned to make our early retirement a success.